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CNN Sunday Morning
Fatal Precision Attacks in Morocco
Aired May 18, 2003 - 9:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ROBIN MEADE, CNN ANCHOR: In Morocco, 27 people are now in custody and they're being questioned about the precision attacks that killed 41 people. Al Qaeda is suspected of having a role in plotting the five explosions which erupted almost simultaneously. CNN's Jim Bittermann is in Casablanca and filed this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even hours after the attacks, staring into the burned out restaurants and blood-stained walls and lost articles of clothing, it didn't take much imagination to visualize how horrific the bombings had been. Five different sites were attacked almost simultaneously.
The deadliest, here at Casablanca's Spanish House, where Friday night diners were interrupted in the middle of their meals by suicide bombers, slashed the throat of a security guard at the front door, barged into the open air restaurant, and blew up themselves and the customers.
The Catholic priest who lives next door described the scene.
REV. BONAVENTURE TONG, CASABLANCA PRIEST: Fire burning and then confusion, people are going around, they struggling here and they're crying.
BITTERMANN: And father Tong says he's more worried now about his own security and that of his small church in this predominantly Muslim land, especially since religious targets, a Jewish cultural center, and a cemetery were among those attack attacked the 14 terrorists.
Among numerous arrests was one at this hotel. The hotel security director said a pair of kamikaze bombers tried to push past one of his officers at the front who was stabbed to death.
One bomber set off his explosives but those carried by a second bomber failed to go off. After losing both his officer and a baggage handler, who was killed in the blast, Maji Gonzi (ph) is hopeful police can make the suspect talk.
Experts say the bombings bore all the hallmarks of an attack by al Qaeda. Less than a day after the attacks, Moroccan police were leading French and American terrorism investigators through the bombed-out ruins, looking for international links.
Terrorism has seldom been seen in Morocco and while there has been increasing concerns about the dangers posed by rising fundamentalism. Few here could have dreamed it would come to this.
(on camera): Moroccan officials who've never faced these kind of suicide bombings before called them, quote, "attacks on their young democracy." The targets, the Jewish sites, the hotel, the restaurants, they said, were symbols of a modern and moderate Arab country.
(voice-over): Twenty-four hours after the blast, anxious relatives still gathered outside a Casablanca hospital, waiting for news of their loved ones. Lives were shattered by these attacks, but so, too, were Moroccans' perceptions of their own security.
Jim Bittermann, CNN, Casablanca.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MEADE: And we would like to hear from you. E-mail us as wam@cnn.com with your questions that you have as it regards the war on terror. CNN's John King and Peter Bergen are going to join us to field your question at the bottom of the hour; so again, we invite you to e-mail us some questions. We've had a lot of response already and appreciate it.
COOPER: Yes, it's one of those great, rare opportunities where you're actually able to ask the questions to our correspondents, John King, White House correspondent, and Peter Bergen, terrorism analyst who knows just about everything regarding al Qaeda that can be known publicly at this point. So, love to hear from you wam@cnn.com.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 18, 2003 - 9:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ROBIN MEADE, CNN ANCHOR: In Morocco, 27 people are now in custody and they're being questioned about the precision attacks that killed 41 people. Al Qaeda is suspected of having a role in plotting the five explosions which erupted almost simultaneously. CNN's Jim Bittermann is in Casablanca and filed this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even hours after the attacks, staring into the burned out restaurants and blood-stained walls and lost articles of clothing, it didn't take much imagination to visualize how horrific the bombings had been. Five different sites were attacked almost simultaneously.
The deadliest, here at Casablanca's Spanish House, where Friday night diners were interrupted in the middle of their meals by suicide bombers, slashed the throat of a security guard at the front door, barged into the open air restaurant, and blew up themselves and the customers.
The Catholic priest who lives next door described the scene.
REV. BONAVENTURE TONG, CASABLANCA PRIEST: Fire burning and then confusion, people are going around, they struggling here and they're crying.
BITTERMANN: And father Tong says he's more worried now about his own security and that of his small church in this predominantly Muslim land, especially since religious targets, a Jewish cultural center, and a cemetery were among those attack attacked the 14 terrorists.
Among numerous arrests was one at this hotel. The hotel security director said a pair of kamikaze bombers tried to push past one of his officers at the front who was stabbed to death.
One bomber set off his explosives but those carried by a second bomber failed to go off. After losing both his officer and a baggage handler, who was killed in the blast, Maji Gonzi (ph) is hopeful police can make the suspect talk.
Experts say the bombings bore all the hallmarks of an attack by al Qaeda. Less than a day after the attacks, Moroccan police were leading French and American terrorism investigators through the bombed-out ruins, looking for international links.
Terrorism has seldom been seen in Morocco and while there has been increasing concerns about the dangers posed by rising fundamentalism. Few here could have dreamed it would come to this.
(on camera): Moroccan officials who've never faced these kind of suicide bombings before called them, quote, "attacks on their young democracy." The targets, the Jewish sites, the hotel, the restaurants, they said, were symbols of a modern and moderate Arab country.
(voice-over): Twenty-four hours after the blast, anxious relatives still gathered outside a Casablanca hospital, waiting for news of their loved ones. Lives were shattered by these attacks, but so, too, were Moroccans' perceptions of their own security.
Jim Bittermann, CNN, Casablanca.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MEADE: And we would like to hear from you. E-mail us as wam@cnn.com with your questions that you have as it regards the war on terror. CNN's John King and Peter Bergen are going to join us to field your question at the bottom of the hour; so again, we invite you to e-mail us some questions. We've had a lot of response already and appreciate it.
COOPER: Yes, it's one of those great, rare opportunities where you're actually able to ask the questions to our correspondents, John King, White House correspondent, and Peter Bergen, terrorism analyst who knows just about everything regarding al Qaeda that can be known publicly at this point. So, love to hear from you wam@cnn.com.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
